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Symptom

Fruit rotting

Rot on developing fruit has a few distinct causes. A dark sunken patch at the tip is a watering disorder; grey fur is botrytis; firm brown marbling on tomatoes is late blight; maggots mean fruit flies.

Check where the rot starts and what it looks like: tip, stalk end, fur, or maggots.

Likely causes

Ordered from the usual answer to the less likely one. Each links to the full problem.

Recorded on Chili peppers

  1. A tomato with a sunken dark patch at its base Fruiting Common

    Blossom end rot

    Dark, sunken patch at the tip of tomatoes and peppers.
  2. A strawberry rotting under fuzzy grey mould Fungal disease Common

    Grey mould (botrytis)

    Grey fuzzy mould on soft fruit.

Less likely on Chili peppers

  1. Potato leaves with dark water-soaked late blight patches Fungal disease Possible

    Late blight

    Firm, brown marbled tomatoes with blighted leaves.
  2. Ripe raspberries collapsing from fruit fly damage Pest Possible

    Fruit flies

    Soft, collapsing fruit with maggots.
  3. A fruit with a sunken, dark anthracnose lesion Fungal disease Possible

    Anthracnose

    Sunken dark spots on ripening fruit.
  4. A potato stem blackened and slimy at the base Bacterial disease Less likely

    Bacterial soft rot and blackleg

    Slimy, smelly rot.